


To Miscalculate

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Grief/Mourning, Happy Hogan needs a hug, Hurt No Comfort, Introspection, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Needs a Hug, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Needs a Hug, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Is the Earth's Best Defender, Wakes & Funerals, What Do the World's Next Heroes Look Like?, What is Heroism?, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 19:04:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20822306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: And then it was silent. Just dust particles drifting through the air and panting breaths as everyone studied to broken landscape. A meaningless, random moment of silence embedded in a battle. Except this one didn’t end. A single snap, just as before. And again, nothing would be the same.Lieutenant Rhodes landed next to Tony. Steve heard the powering down whirl of two suits. One weaker than the other, running out of energy reserves. A miscalculation.----Steve reflects on Tony's life and his legacy and what he must do to uphold both.





	To Miscalculate

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be one of those fun "Peter meets the Avengers on accident and Tony has to lie about who he is" trope fics. That is not what happened. Whoops.

And then it was silent. Just dust particles drifting through the air and panting breaths as everyone studied to broken landscape. A meaningless, random moment of silence embedded in a battle. Except this one didn’t end. A single snap, just as before. And again, nothing would be the same. 

Lieutenant Rhodes landed next to Tony. Steve heard the powering down whirl of two suits. One weaker than the other, running out of energy reserves. A miscalculation. Steve swallowed. That kind of power… After everything, Tony was still human. He had been so blind before. A moment later, a boy in a ripped suit tumbled to a stop in front of the fallen soldier. The boy’s sobbed pleas sounded as though they had traveled through water rather than the too cool air. Steve tried to ignore to boy’s weeping—who brought a child into battle anyway?

Rhodes held the boy back as Pepper said her goodbyes. Steve ducked his head, overcome with gratitude and guilt. So many words unsaid. A life that he had only just learned to appreciate. Without asking, his knees dropped to the ground. Steve would never be able to apologize. There was a little girl who no longer had a dad. The second time Steve had taken a Stark from their child. 

The others followed suit. Respect that had never been so crystal before. So direct. Why hadn’t they acknowledged before what Tony had earned time and time again?

Clean up was a blur. Steve checked in with Avengers, Guardians, Sorcerers, and warriors he had never met who had come to their aid. Who had come to Tony’s aid. Steve tried to focus with T’Challa about what to do next, but was there a next? Without the great hero, it seemed unlikely. At least he wasn’t alone in the sorrow. 

A lifetime ago, there had been a quip at the end of their first battle. A promise of a meal that Steve later learned was a promise of family. There was no one here to assure Steve that it was over now. There was nothing Steve could do here. When the question of what to do with the Stones was raised days later, Steve didn’t second guess his decision. There was a life he had been ripped from. A life unfinished. This one hadn’t suited him, but now he could try again somewhere else. 

But he couldn’t leave just yet. 

When the time for the funeral came, Mr. Hogan gathered together Tony’s family at FRIDAY’s request. A reading of the will, he explained. Steve watched them go as he spoke to Sam about final funeral preparations. 

Pepper had done the most, but as the hours ticked down, she had passed the duties off to Steve. Pepper, who was a brace against the shifting world, who always held fast before the movement had started, had lost her source of turbulence. The woman who had planned for every possible outcome had never considered this one possible. In her arms was a girl Steve was never privileged to have met outside of the day he initiated the path that took her father away. Morgan was defiant in the face of her grief, but Steve knew a piece of her world was gone. No star would ever shine as bright as Tony Stark. 

Close behind was Rhodey, a man Steve had always respected. A man who Steve trusted because Tony had and wasn’t that the ultimate test? His charge was gone now. Purpose had never been so slippery. The Lieutenant had his hand gripped on the shoulder of the boy from the Compound. His face was still crumbled as he was pulled away from his aunt. Peter, Steve had learned his name was. That kid he dropped a truck on years ago in Germany. The Spider-Man. 

The family Tony Stark created was pulled inside by Happy Hogan, who had been there before anyone else. A somber look on his face. A man who had seen this day coming since 2008 and despite his preparations still wasn’t ready. All because Steve had offered a second chance that Tony hadn’t wanted. The Captain hadn’t even stayed for lunch. Showed how grateful he was.

A half hour later and the rest of the funeral guests had arrived. Guardians and Wakandans. A teenager from Tennessee and a SHIELD director. Steve wondered who would attend his funeral. He wondered if he had ever affected a life in the same way Tony had. With the same earnestness. With the precision. No one who knew Tony would forget him. No one would cease to mourn. 

After all, what sort of man could bring so many different people together? Who could make enemies weep on each others’ shoulders? Who could unite nations and galaxies? What sort of man could say, “I lost the kid” and have Steve grieve without knowing who he was referring to? 

There would never be another Tony Stark. Not for this lifetime and probably not for the next. Many would try to rise to the challenge, but first the universe would have to forget who Tony was, and that would take a sort of power that Steve was intent of returning to its place. The kind of power that only the next Tony Stark would be able to wield. 

Steve looked out of the mourners from his place in the mass. He knew they were only the fraction privileged enough to pay their respects. That around the universe, there were millions more who would sit in silence today, holding their loved ones close and thanking the man who has now only contained in a jar of ashes, because he didn’t want his daughter to see him hopeless. The man who brought back half a universe from ash had now become reduced to it. Later, the family would spread the last particles of the world’s greatest defender throughout the land. One final way to give back. 

Pepper held a simple wreath in her arms as she slowly made her way through the crowd. Last minute, she had dug through Tony’s office drawers to find a finishing touch for the small display. "Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart." It had taken Steve too long to realize that it wasn’t the world that needed such proof. It was Tony. And now the man had it but was no longer there to see. He had never trusted himself. Steve couldn’t understand why. 

No one cried as they watched the wreath float away. Instead, they held their breath, hoping that this was a mistake. That Tony would reveal himself from the trees, a little charred, but very much alive. 

Peter broke first. He buried his face in his aunt’s chest and sobbed. He shook and wailed and refused to look back at the last piece of his mentor. Steve averted his eyes from the open wound, but soon others followed his lead, allowing the shock and pain and grief pour out until no one remained unmoved. 

Expected or not, this was Tony Stark’s legacy: a band of heroes who now understand the price of a life and who finally understand how to protect it. Being weak is not a defect. It is human nature. Being human, having emotion, good or bad, is what protected people. In the end, Tony wasn’t Iron Man. He was a father, a mentor, a husband. That was what made him a hero. Steve saw that now. It wasn’t the suit. It was never the suit. It was always Tony. 

Which is why, the next morning, Steve didn’t hesitate to take the Stones and the shield and to leave both behind. The world didn’t need another Tony Stark. It definitely didn’t need another Steve Rogers. It needed Sam Wilson. It needed Peter Parker. It needed a generation of people, not heroes, standing up for the little guy, for hope. Tony knew that.  And if there was one thing Steve had learned after all these years, all those wasted arguments, the running, the hiding, the grief, it was that Tony Stark never miscalculated. 


End file.
